


Move In

by chasedown



Series: SMF [1]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Football, Gen, US Football, background Jack/Parse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 06:33:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30118620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasedown/pseuds/chasedown
Summary: When a room opens up in the Haus, Bitty, kicker for Samwell Men's Football team, secures some coveted dibs.
Series: SMF [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2216466
Kudos: 9





	Move In

"Ta-dah," Shitty said, swinging the door open on a decent-size, mostly empty room. There was still a box inside, torn on one side and filled with crumpled papers and junk, and another folded and leaning against the wall. "We didn't get to settle dibs, so bequeathment rights reverted to Johnson."

There were little bits of debris on the floor. Whoever'd cleaned up hadn't done a very good job of it and had even left a dead plant in the window, shriveled up in its pot. The desk looked like it was in decent shape, at least, and the mattress on the bed seemed clean and in one piece.

"He's a hard guy to hunt down, but--" Shitty waved a hand at the room, then gave Bitty a nudge, hard enough that he had to take a step forward and in to keep from stumbling.

"Oh," Bitty said, when Shitty kept grinning expectantly at him. "Are you saying--?"

"I'm saying she's all yours, man. Stamped and signed."

Bitty looked at the room again. The closet door looked like it might not close properly until it got some attention, and there were no curtains on the windows, but it was roomy and it got good light. Even the little pot the abandoned plant had been left in was kind of cute. A good size for something small and low maintenance. "Really?"

"Unless you're like, attached to the dorms?"

Bitty wasn't.

"Isn't there a--line or something?"

"Dibs are dibs," Shitty said, and raised his hand like he was taking an oath. "It's in the bylaws."

"Oh," Bitty said again, and turned to take the room in one more time. It needed a good once-over with a broom and maybe to have its surfaces gone over with a damp cloth, but it was definitely nice. "I guess if no one's gonna mind--"

Shitty waved his concern away. "It's yours, bro. No one's gonna mind. It's not like Parse is coming back."

\-----

Of course Parse wasn't coming back. If Bitty'd gotten a D1 scholarship, he wouldn't have turned it down either, even if he did love Samwell. "Coach would have loved it," Bitty said, stirring a batter in the kitchen. Just to give the facilities a test run now that he had full access to the premises. "My dad," he clarified. "He wanted me to go to Georgia."

Holster nodded sagely, waiting for an opportunity to stick a finger into the bowl. The next time he tried it, Bitty was going to swat him with the spoon, no mercy.

"But," Bitty went on, "he says he's happy I'm at least playing football. With a scholarship and everything!"

"Yeah, man," Holster said. "Dads."

"Gosh." Bitty stopped stirring to look up at the ceiling. "I didn't think I was even gonna get in here, but I guess they liked my tape." He frowned. "What is that stain?"

Holster tilted his head back. "Oh, that? The tub juice went real wrong one time. It's nothing."

"Huh," Bitty said, thoughtfully.

"But Shitty's perfected the brew now, so we can assume it's pretty safe."

"Well," Bitty said, still looking at the stain. "That's good to know."

\-----

Parse had plastered a Patriots sticker to the desk that was now Bitty's, and Bitty had a few Samwell stickers, but they weren't the right shape to completely cover it up. "Ugh," he said, as he set his things up and had to look at it again, where it was stuck right to the front of a drawer. He'd tried to pry it up, but the image had started to separate from the glue and pulling it off just partly would have looked even worse. Maybe. "I didn't come all this way to look at a Pats logo till I graduate," he told the drawer. He'd need a scraper. Maybe some goo-be-gone in case it left residue.

Parse had bad taste. Or mostly bad taste, because he'd left a motivational poster with cats tacked up behind the door that was pretty good if Bitty assumed it was ironic.

But he'd also left Bitty with a busted closet door and two hangers that looked like they'd been yanked out of shape. "Good lord," Bitty said, sighing at it as he examined the damage, and added a trip to the hardware store to his mental to-do list. "What was that boy even doing in here?" 

Still, after he'd sorted Parse's last box of class handouts, old syllabuses, and bits of junk into the recycling and-or trash, the room felt like it was shaping up. Or as shaped-up as Bitty could get it until he got his hands on some curtains and maybe a nice rug.

He could spiff up the kitchen while he was at it. Aunt Judy usually had a bunch of stuff she wanted to get rid of, but thought was too wasteful to throw away. Maybe she'd be willing to send him a package if he asked. 

\-----

"And what about this couch?" Bitty asked, gesturing at it. "It smells like a shoe." He couldn't figure out what it was made of, or what more natural material it was trying to fake. "And it's all sticky."

"That's so the luck can't get away, bro," Ransom said. "When we're rooting for someone." He patted the couch fondly. "This is where the magic happens."

"Ew," Bitty said.

"That's what you say now. But one day you'll look back on this baby and bask in the sweet, sweet memories."

"Is that so?" Bitty asked, to move past it in case there was an actual explanation coming. "I guess I could try adding some throw pillows."

"Everyone resists," Ransom observed, directing it mostly at Holster, who'd come in from the next room. "But they all give in eventually."

\-----

"Hey," Bitty said, when Jack came back, almost late for the new semester. Jack looked at him doing dishes in the kitchen and frowned.

"I live here now," Bitty explained. "I got Parse's dibs. Well, Parse's _room_. Johnson--"

"Oh," Jack said. "Alright."

"So we're neighbors."

"Sure." Jack shrugged uncomfortably. "I have to put my stuff away."

Bitty smiled, trying to win him over through sheer charm.

"What happened to this kitchen?" Jack asked, and not like he was particularly charmed.

\-----

"I think he got _worse_ ," Bitty complained, at their first practice. It was too early for practice. His mental clock was still set to summer. To long, late evenings and sleeping in. "I didn't think he could actually get worse."

At least Bitty didn't have to deal with Jack that much. Not like Ransom and Holster did. Not like Shitty did either, but Shitty seemed to let Jack's foul moods slide off him like water off a duck.

"Sometimes a bro just needs a shoulder to bitch to," Shitty said, leaning on the drinks cooler. He'd unscrewed the top of his bottle for easier refills as he watched Jack throw. "As QB2 it's my solemn duty to provide backup."

Bitty snorted "Is that in the bylaws?" he asked.

"Definitely." Shitty swirled the remaining Gatorade in his bottle. "There's more pressure now, you know? Since Parse vamoosed."

There'd been pressure last year too, when Jack had left all of a sudden, with no official explanation given other than health concerns, and then stayed gone for the rest of the season, while Parson became a total hermit who appeared to play football, then disappeared back into his shell like he couldn't function without Jack there to criticize his speed or his footwork or the way he'd run a play.

"It's different," Shitty said, like he knew what Bitty was thinking. "That was just for a bit, and we all knew it was for a bit. Just to close things out."

"You did great, though," Bitty said, smiling. Shitty shrugged.

"Eh."

And Shitty hadn't been such a sourpuss about everything, either, Bitty thought, watching Jack throw into a net, ball after ball, accurate like he'd never left.

"It was a weird season," Shitty admitted, almost apologetically. "But this year, get ready to win some football games, Bits."

"Oh," Bitty said. "I'm definitely ready to win some football games."


End file.
